The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Gift to support new arts, community center
WASHINGTON — The Gunnery recently announced that Richard C. Colton Jr., Class of 1960, has committed to a multimillion dollar leadership gift for the school in support of the new Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center.
The gift has been specifically designated to name the center’s new Richard C. Colton, Jr. Visual Arts Wing.
This is the third substantial leadership gift The Gunnery has announced in connection with the new, 32,000-square-foot arts and community center, which is the largest capital project the school has ever undertaken. As conceptualized and designed, the center will include a 415-seat theater that will accommodate the entire school community and guests, along with classroom and studio spaces for graphic and digital arts, drawing, painting, ceramics and photography, instrumental and choral rehearsal spaces, and gallery spaces to showcase the work of student and guest artists.
Colton, a leading philanthropist in New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as an avid art collector and patron of the arts, has been a consistent supporter of the school and was a member of The Gunnery’s Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2013.
“I am very pleased to support the new arts and community center by making this pledge for a new visual arts wing. The Gunnery is very close to my heart and the cultural enrichment of the students is a priority to me,” Colton said, in a written statement. “It is my hope that the artwork exhibited there will connect with the students as emerging citizens of the world, and provide an excellent basis for courses of study across the curriculum in history, geography, science and the arts.”
A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Colton has accumulated a lengthy resume of diverse accomplishments, both personal and professional, over the course of five decades. He began his career at the Lykes Bros. Steamship Company in 1976, working in the Seabee division and serving as vice president from 1988 to 1997. In the late 1990s, he founded The Howell Company, a private investment group specializing in start-up companies for women. In 2003, Colton produced James Farwell’s “The Murder Game,” a murder mystery play set in New Orleans, which opened in London’s West End.